02/24/05 B.P.A. rate structure change?, Part Two

There is no question that any perceived threat to the Northwest economy must be addressed with a seriousness, determination, and whenever possible, a united front. And that is how the Northwest congressional delegation, in a rare show of unity, is approaching the proposed changes to the rate structures of federal power marketing administrations like the Bonneville Power Administration. That includes a recent letter signed by all U.S. Representatives from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, under the banner of the Northwest Energy Caucus, sent to the Office of Budget and Management. The letter called for a stop to the Bush Administration's plan to change B.P.A.'s rate structure from its current wholesale plan to one based on market prices. Our region's lawmakers, and many business leaders, understand what a rate hike upwards of twenty per cent would do to the Northwest economy, including Northwest Energy Caucus co-chair, Greg Walden of Oregon. WALDEN: Now when you are in a region that has suffered the highest unemployment in the United States for multiple years you see an increase in power proposed like this, you know it's only going to harm jobs and hurt our economy and the government doesn't need to be doing that. It's not going to make any money off of it. It's a budgetary gimmick and trick. But despite the concern, there are some like Walden's fellow co-chair on the Caucus, Representative Doc Hastings of Washington, who say at the end of the day, the worry now might be for naught. HASTINGS: I don't think that the President's proposal frankly is going to go anywhere, and he is not the first President to have suggested that. Now this is not Hastings throwing caution in the wind. He has history to back up his statement. Previous Presidential administrations and their Office of Budget and Management, regardless of political ideology, have suggested a similar change in the way B.P.A. and other federal power marketing agencies do business. And each time, the region's lawmakers have successfully fought of that notion. Walden says the idea is to make ratepayers for those utilities pay higher rates, and that there is no reason for the government to do so based on previous efforts by B.P.A. to continue to pay of its federal debts. WALDEN: They criticize us for in theory having subsidized power when in fact those issues where dealt with both in the 1980 Power Act, and again in 1996, when the whole issue about debt payments and bond payments was restructured and the ratepayers paid $100 million dollars to kind of clear the decks.